Participation and collaborative learning
A total of 30 people registered for the workshop, with 27 participants recorded in the final attendance list. Most participants joined on site at the University of Salzburg, while the hybrid format also enabled online participation.
The workshop was designed for a broad CIVIS audience, including:
- Students in geoinformatics, geography, environmental sciences, geology, and computer science.
- Disaster response teams and crisis-mapping volunteers.
- Urban planners, environmental analysts, and sustainability practitioners.
- Researchers working with Sentinel-2 or satellite datasets without access to high-end computing infrastructure.
The workshop welcomed participants with different levels of experience in Earth Observation, GIS and programming. Its combination of lectures, demonstrations and hands-on exercises enabled participants from diverse academic backgrounds to engage with cloud-native technologies and apply them directly to real datasets and practical challenges. The hybrid format also widened access to the activity and demonstrated the potential for future transnational workshops to involve participants from across the CIVIS Alliance.
The workshop followed a progressive learning approach that combined theoretical foundations with practical implementation:
- On the first day, participants were introduced to the fundamentals of Earth Observation, satellite missions and EO Data Cubes, as well as cloud-native geospatial technologies and modern data formats. The programme also included practical demonstrations of the VirtuGhan Web Platform and QGIS Plugin, allowing participants to explore applications such as vegetation monitoring, water analysis, temporal comparisons and spectral indices.
- The second day focused on practical analysis and collaborative problem-solving. Participants worked with Python notebooks and Google Colab to explore raster and vector data, data cubes and cloud-native EO workflows before taking part in the EO Team Challenge.
During the EO Team Challenge, participants worked in multidisciplinary groups to apply the knowledge and tools introduced during the workshop to real-world environmental and societal challenges.
The activity resulted in four participant-developed Earth Observation use cases:
- Flood detection and rapid damage assessment, examining the impacts of flooding in Hallein, Austria.
- Urban expansion and green space monitoring, exploring the use of satellite observations for sustainable urban planning.
- Forest and biodiversity monitoring, using vegetation indicators and multi-temporal data to identify environmental change.
- Water resources and drought monitoring, using Sentinel-2 imagery to analyse changes in reservoir extent.
Several teams went beyond the initial requirements by producing maps, analysing real datasets through code and developing prototype workflows. The activity demonstrated how cloud-native EO technologies could support disaster management, urban planning, biodiversity monitoring and water-resource management.
Participants rated the workshop highly
Participant feedback confirmed the success of the initiative. All respondents rated the workshop 5 out of 5 overall, while most described it as either Very Useful or Useful for their academic and professional interests.
Participants particularly valued the combination of theoretical explanation and practical exercises, the Google Colab sessions, direct engagement with cloud-native EO technologies and the collaborative EO Team Challenge. Feedback also highlighted the supportive learning environment created by the student organisers and presenters.
Suggestions for future editions included allowing more time for group work and adding further discussion and feedback after the team presentations.
Building skills, collaboration and open science
The workshop strengthened practical knowledge of technologies such as Earth Observation Data Cubes, STAC catalogues, COGs, GeoParquet and cloud-native processing while fostering collaboration among students from different institutions and academic backgrounds.
It also supported open science, open-source innovation and computational accessibility, giving participants tools and methodologies they could continue to use in coursework, research, thesis projects and professional activities.
The project contributed particularly to SDG 4 – Quality Education, SDG 11 – Sustainable Cities and Communities, SDG 13 – Climate Action and SDG 15 – Life on Land.
Beyond the learning outcomes for participants, the project also strengthened the organisers' experience in student leadership, international teamwork, project management, event coordination and scientific communication.
Watch the workshop highlights
A dedicated workshop summary video documented the two-day event, including lectures, demonstrations, hands-on sessions, participant exchanges and the EO Team Challenge.
The video provides an overview of how the student-led initiative combined open-source technology, collaborative learning and international cooperation to make advanced Earth Observation tools more accessible to the CIVIS community.
